Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
John 17:17-19 NASB
In the prayer that is sometimes called “The High Priestly Prayer,” recorded for us in John 17, Jesus specifically asks for six things for his disciples. The first three are for those alive in Jesus’ own lifetime. They are for protection (11), for deliverance (15), and for sanctification (17).
Jesus says that he protected the disciples (Judas is not in the room) while he was on earth and he asks the Father to continue to protect them after he returns to his heavenly life. When we think that all of them died martyrs’ deaths we may think that the Father did not do a very good job. But that reveals our short-sightedness. Losing our lives is not a tragedy, but losing our faith is. God the Father did indeed protect the disciples and they all died in the faith.
The second request is similar, but more pointed. The “world” is what is dangerous to our faith. Here the fine line between the physical and the spiritual is most evident. The physical, material creation itself is a positive blessing to us, but the spiritual idea that the physical, material world, and its satisfaction, is all that really matters is a deadly danger. So, because we are necessarily in the physical, material world, the Evil One is constantly tempting us to fall into that false way of thinking. Jesus asks the Father to keep the disciples from that temptation.
The third request is the one that runs through the Bible and is directly related to the first two. How can we live with a triumphant, enduring faith? How can we avoid falling for the seductive blandishments of the “world” and its deadly promises? By being infused with the very nature of God. We are not simply resisting, but rather are taking the battle to the Enemy. Jesus sanctified himself to make it possible for us to be sanctified. Let’s allow Jesus work to be fully accomplished in us.
Called To Be Transformed 